Snow
by Lynnie76296
Summary: On the moon lies a frozen land ruled by the Snow Queen. She cast the Earth into a winter tundra, leaving only one place where summer lives; Iceland. Her final plan of world domination begins with cursing the young Iceland princess, Cinder. With the help of the traveling Kai and other allies she encounters, she journeys to thaw her freezing heart. Lightly Frozen based.
1. Book One

This snow-flake grew larger and larger,

till at last it became the figure of a woman,

dressed in garments of white gauze,

which looked like millions of starry snow-flakes linked together.

She was fair and beautiful, but made of ice—

shining and glittering ice.

- _Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen_


	2. One: The Touch of Ice

Cinder's dream was covered in snow.

Always, Cinder had dreamed of the warm coming of spring. The colorful petals bursting through the blanket of white beneath them and the skies sweeping away the greyness that kept the sun hidden. The animals awaking from a long sleep as if each were a princess freed from a cursed sleep Cinder read about in her collection of books. A worldwide spring – Cinder's constant dream.

But the sunshine was spotted with white speckles that danced on their decent toward Cinder, resting in the now-covered grass. Her nightgown of lace and ruffles caught many of the freckles that blended with the fabric almost the same pure color. Curious as when she was awake, her gaze lifted to the sky where the dots were born.

She felt the snowflakes kiss her nose with eager lips and linger on her eyelashes with clinging hugs. Between the falling flecks she saw the white powder decorate her hair until even the braided locks turned the glossed color of winter. Every breath she took was filled with the crisp, cold air brimming her with frost.

Somehow, her skin never felt the nip of the snow surrounding her. The flakes melted into tickling pools absorbed into her body without confliction. And yet, the shivering overtaking her shoulders came from a deep knit chill she could not escape.

Soon, Cinder realized the cold consuming her was not around her, but within her.

The tingling pinpricks of ice started in her right hand, where it crawled up her shoulder just skimming her neck. Like a snake, it slithered down her leg to the very tip of her foot. It spread across her chest, cooling her spine and lungs and leaving a wake of numbing throughout her entire body. Slowly, it drew out the warmth of life she held.

After her whole body was touched by the tingling, only then did it reach her source of life – her heart. Instead of light prickling subdued by the numbness, the frost bit into her heart with a cold ferocity. Sharp ice tips dug into the soft organ, piercing her very soul in the process to douse her internal flame.

Pain enveloped her as ice shards slit her apart from the inside out. The jagged slivers circled her heart into a frozen encasing that seeped out into the rest of her immobile body. Her boned chilled to fragile glass and her blood froze as oceans did every winter, trapped behind a sheet of thickness. She could feel the freeze running through her, taking her over until she would be nothing but a lifeless statue of ice.

A scream rocked her head as it echoed in between her ears, not realizing at first that the voice was her own. She couldn't stand the unbearable sensation within her, tearing her up with vicious slashes. Weakness drove away her cries after her voice grew hoarse, but the cold continued to grow, feeding off her pain.

Never wavering, the only feeling her weariness could not pacify was the storming blizzard taking up the space where her feelings of love used to be generated. Cold and barren, a hollowness remained where the heavy burden of a heart used to weigh on her chest. She feared the hollowness was turning into a thick block of ice in wait to be shattered.

Penetrating the tempest within her, a sweet sound sang the song of warmth. The sunshine and blooming spring Cinder could faintly remember dreaming of long ago was written into a single word. Repeated over and over, Cinder desperately strained to hear the angelic voice whispering the mysterious word she could not make out over the blowing winds inside her.

Her body refused to move and her head fogged from a cloudy breeze ready to swallow her up. Deep breaths overtook her, breaths that came out in visible puffs between her barely parted eyelids. There was no longer any pain or feeling; there was only the cold darkness of ice.

With her remaining strength, she pulled her consciousness towards the sound hoping – praying – the burst of spring could warm her ice-locked heart.

"Cinder!"

The alarmed voice of her sister woke Cinder from the awful nightmare. She jolted upward in her luxurious bed, gripping her chest for dear life. Her eyes darted around her hands in search of frostbite that wasn't there. Simultaneously, her mind searched for remnants of the puncturing ice, but none endured the cross from the dram world to reality. Heaviness remained beneath her breast, but she brushed it off as her imagination.

Whipping in the direction the voice came from, Cinder was met with Winter's concerned face, partially covered by askew strands of black hair fallen from her ribbons. A relieved gasp escaped Cinder seeing her sister in no harmful condition, a gasp even more appreciated when Cinder couldn't see it.

Still shaken from shrieks Cinder was sure she let out from within her sleep, the young girl crawled onto Cinder's bed grasping for comfort. She reached out to grip her sister's free hand rested on the covers of the bed.

It was ice cold.

Winter's hands flew away, stinging from the burning cold she didn't expect. Her light whimper sent a wave of guilt and horror throughout an already puzzled Cinder. She raised her hand to inspect the seemingly normal limb, but found nothing that would suggest it was anything but normal.

Normal, however, wouldn't have rejected her sister's loving touch.

Confused as well, Winter found her sister's eyes in hopes that the answer to the sudden cold was somewhere inside. Carefully not to touch her sister's bare skin – and ashamed because of her caution – Winter scuttled back onto her sister's bed in hopes the prickle wouldn't happen again.

A chuckle rang from the room's corner, capturing Cinder's attention. Beyond her bed's end and even beyond her sister's, the crevasse where two of the crème walls met wasn't completely touched by the moon from the nearby window. A glow of blue from the night sky outside tinted both the moon kissed ground and corner soaked in darkness.

In the shadows, a figure loomed, veiled in a sheet of swirling snowflakes. Resting on a crown of icicles and black hair, it cascaded down to her waist and fell in a train behind her. The fabric covering her snow-white skin was made of shimmering ice in glittering designs of diamonds. A shawl of the whitest fur rested just off her shoulders and curled its way down to the floor.

Whispers were traded throughout the kingdom of a figure said to be cloaked in snow. Never seen, only heard, like the wind whistling through the white-tipped mountains, she was the fearsome witch that cursed the world to be a storming tundra. She was the one blamed for ever flurry so severe it destroyed another piece of the world. Though she reigned far away from the world Cinder knew and loved, there wasn't a pin dropped on Earth without her knowledge.

The Snow Queen.

Despite her supposed inability to come to earth, Cinder knew it could be none other than the wicked ruler of the moon. Everywhere her presence touched left a swirl of chipped frost running across the walls in a race away from the heartless queen. Radiating off of her was the chill of cruelty and vanity no other could hold in such higher respect.

Cinder's only knowledge of the woman that wasn't derived from rumors or legends came from her parents who had spoken with the queen through negotiations and visiting second-party officials. All of their conversations began and ended with the queen's demand of Iceland's surrender – and a threat of their destruction otherwise.

Behind the veil, Cinder could only make out the queen's smirking lips, pink as a winter kissed nose. She didn't need to see the veiled eyes to know her gaze was burning holes through Cinder, trying to seep the cold into her soul. The chilling look was enough to send Cinder's skin crawling with fear. Ignoring the cry that would come from the sting of her touch, Cinder shielded her sister from the imposing danger that had Winter trembling – and not from its cold.

With a laughter as light as sleigh bells and as brisk as a wolf's cackle, the queen vanished in a whirlwind of snow. Given no chance to question the queen's motives, the sisters clung to each other for fear that the fearsome woman was not truly gone.

But alas, only her voice remained, echoing off the frozen touched walls.

"Consider this my coronation gift to you, little princess."

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**Hope you enjoyed! Please review!**


	3. Two: Falling into Place

A sigh of ecstasy escaped the queen as she returned to her body, still draped over her crafted throne, miles away from where her mind had projected itself. The process always left her short of breath revived only through deep, steady huffs she kept strictly soundless. She would never reveal that anything could drain her great power, to anyone.

For years, her time was devoted to perfecting the technique. At first, the projection was less than a shimmer of an image across her private chambers, shattering with a burst vein in her forehead. Her patience became the thing most strained when finally the technique allowed an exact copy of herself to appear on Earth, powers intact.

It annoyed the queen how long and hard a master of magic her caliber was forced to work for such a simple task. The chore was supposed to be quick, supposed to simple – as easy and painless as formulating the plan had been. Instead, her beautiful face was stressed in a grimace for so long that wrinkles nearly formed around her frown.

_A queen should not be sullied by such insolence_, she thought as her eyes darkened into the far reaches of the throne room. She thought the same thing fifty years ago, when she cast the earth into a climate better suiting her taste. The best reward of her efforts: almost every country crumbling into turmoil and submitting to her magic and rule.

And yet, of the few that remained, the thriving Iceland continued to be a thorn in her side.

The queen never understood that country. Against all odds they somehow found a way to fight back the bitter frost. An island that used to flourish with tropical weather despite its name, a name the queen loathed. They still retained four seasons and their port was never without a trade shipment.

And the royal family. A headstrong prince who married a nearby princess _for love_ instead of a political arrangement by his parents. He ruled with the ambitions of freedom and equality – two things that had nothing to do with ruling a country in the queen's eyes. Although, the adulation his subjects felt towards him was something the queen envied with passion.

Negotiation with the family left her playing the fool. While other countries begged to be spared from the endless snow, Iceland's king had snuffed her most ungraciously. Upon her first proposal, he demanded she never speak to him again relaying a speech of Iceland's refusal to succumb to her cruel ways. Just remembering his defiance caused one of her ice sculptures across the room to shatter in her power's grip.

_It is no longer a matter_, she reminded herself to calm her sparking nails. They have been dealt with. And soon the country would fall to her rule, the loathsome place would soon be pitted into political turmoil and destroyed.

A smile spread on the queen's lips. She would enjoy the chaos that would soon befall Iceland; it would prove an amusing past time leading up to Earth's grand finale. After its demise, she would turn it, and the rest of the surviving world, into a real land of ice.

Below her, a guard stepped up to the stairs before her throne and into her view. He bowed, one knee touching the ground while another stood to cradle his elbow. Once his head rose, she signaled him to speak with a halfhearted flick of the wrist.

"The guard you required has arrived, my queen. And so has the, uh," he coughed to cover the disgust in his mouth as he fumbled for an acceptable word. "_Warm one_." The queen hid her snicker at the guard's attempt not to insult her, all the while she could care less what he said about the wretch.

"Send them in."

The guard did her bidding without a second thought as none of them ever did. The towering doors of the throne room creaked open allowing the vessels waiting outside to enter from the darkness.

A stiff solider strutted in with the confidence and grace expected from someone of his standing. The navy uniform gripping his body was in perfect condition, without one of his many badges out of place. It was a wonder how he managed that; all the times the queen witnessed his sparring he was never one to be anything but vicious. His face held less than an emotionless expression as he bent at the waist for his bow.

Behind him, a meek girl tiptoed in looking much more raggedy in her simple skirt and shirt with runes tattooed on the sleeves. Just the sight of her sent an unpleasant taste in the queen's mouth, making her wonder why she choose the ratted-haired nuisance for such a vital task. _Because_ _she is the best_, the queen reminded herself reluctantly.

The girl dipped her head, squirming under the stare if a woman she had rightfully feared her entire life.

The queen left no room for setbacks. "I've called you two here on a matter of the upmost importance. There is a specific task i need you two to complete."

"As you know, our colonization of earth has been temporarily prevented by the rebellious actions of Iceland, the land of surviving summer. The mission i am issuing you with is to end this remaining defiance."

"The survival of our kind is dependent on a new habitat, preferably Earth. If we cannot obtain this suitable host plant, our kind will perish. Knowing this, will you assist in the rehabilitation of our dying race?"

Immediately, the queen's gaze landed on the uncomfortable girl in her presence. Her eyes fell to the floor, heat warming her cheeks from embarrassment and unease being in the queen's sights. She nodded, shoving her glasses back to the bridge of her nose from where they slid.

The guard wasted no time considering her offer; the decision was already made within his head where orders were given only to be followed.

"What would you have us do, my queen?"

The queen could not help the grin curling her lips. Everything was falling into place.

"I need you to hunt down Iceland's crown princess and kill her."

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**Silverleaf15: Thank you so much! I'm really glad you like it! To answer your question, unfortunately not for awhile. The chapters steal glimpses into everyone's lives, not just Cinder's, so between bits of her story there are other events going on as well. But in the terms of the actual timeline of the story, Cinder will meet him very soon. And since I am also eager to see him, I might add him in sooner!**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	4. Three: Tears in the Snow

Cinder heard Winter give another giggle as she burst into a freshly formed snow heap. The soft mountains cushioned her falls and dotted her wool dress with sparkling flakes. Once one toppled to the little princess's leaping, she would just move onto the next.

Standing just beyond the castle's reach, Cinder watched over the innocent child exploring the wonders around her. Her smile was only present whenever Winter glanced her way, otherwise it twisted into a worrisome frown subject to her habit if biting her bottom lip. Worry clipped her nails and upturned her eyebrows until they were sore.

The Snow Queen's words whispered in the pits of her mind like a dark curse. Coronation? Cinder's eighteenth birthday was months away and she would not take the throne until her parents' death. Despite their absence for the past weeks, they were alive and well making trade negotiations overseas.

And what was the gift the queen spoke of? Somehow Cinder did not think it would be one she wanted or could return. Yet, she felt no different from the night if the Snow Queen's visit, except that the fear of the queen's words had chilled her beyond help.

Cinder rubbed her shoulders, covered in a fur-lined cloak over her thick knit dress. Somehow, she remained freezing even wrapped in layers of clothing. Whether it was next to the fires of the castle or bundled beneath her thick bedding, she could not warm herself from the cold that struck her.

"Your highness,"

Cinder turned to the loving face of Iko, their caring nanny. She had stepped down as Cinder's main governess only years earlier in exchange for a royal advisor to teach her the studies of ruling a kingdom. Nevertheless, her lessons with Winter continued and her presence never left Cinder's life.

The older woman smiled, "My lady, it is time for supper."

"Already?" Winter whined, overhearing the conversation.

"Now, your highness," the nanny scolded with only a sliver of seriousness. "You best come inside before you catch a wee cold."

"Iko's right," Cinder agreed, placing a comforting hand on her sister's back. "The winter doesn't love you as much as you love it."

Winter smiled up at her sister. "Who doesn't love the winter?"

Cinder couldn't keep the sympathy out of her smile. Unfortunately, there were many who hated winter despite their country's thriving lifestyle. More so than the season, they hated the far off queen who caused it.

The two princesses slipped past the towering open doors held by Iko's hip. Snow still clinging to her skirts fell off in heaps as she skipped down the long corridor. Behind her, her sister sauntered at a less enthusiastic pace along with their nanny trying to sweep up the younger girl's trail with her apron.

"Chief Advisor Torin has some news after supper," Iko mentioned after most of the snow had inevitably melted.

Cinder nodded, only partially listening to Iko's words as she ushered her out of her cloak. Reluctant and hesitant to embrace the air without the extra warmth, the cloak left her shaking hands. She watched it with longing as Iko shuffled along to finish other chores around the palace.

Running her palms along her arms, Cinder found Winter already seated at her place on the left side of the table's head. The dark wood was designed with Celtic patterns as was most of their castle home. Her father told her it was styled to honor their heritage from the now glacier-covered Europe.

She slid out the chair across from Winter, a warm bowl of soup already waiting for her. Her sister dug in as she delicately sat and spread her skirts as her mother taught her so many times it became a habit she'd rather live without. Steam rose from the bowl hinting at a heat Cinder couldn't feel even though her tongue burned from taking a sip.

The table remained quiet except for Winter's unladylike consumption of her meal. Since her parent's departure, the castle had felt empty and vacant. The servants were not bustling with their usual vigor to please their king and queen. Guests postponed their visits until the country's leaders returned. Other than her tutors and loving sister, Cinder went days without seeing anyone at all.

An abrupt clang of thick doors being barged open flustered Cinder and Winter with shock. Chief Royal Advisor Konn Torin stood tall at the opposite head of the table with a grim look engraved on his features. Even Winter's smile faded at the dark grimace aging his already older appearance.

"Your Highnesses." He bowed revealing no clue to the bleak news he withheld. Running in just on Advisor Torin's heels was a disheveled Iko. Cinder's stomach heart dropped into her stomach when she caught the tears glistening in Iko's eyes.

"I asked you to wait until after they finished their meal!" Iko pleaded with a raspy, bordering hysteric voice.

Advisor Torin spared no emotion to her cries. "We can't afford to waste any time."

"Have you no heart?! This is not the sort of news you deliever so casually."

"I'm not being causal," he snapped, irritated by her overly displayed distress. "And we will have to tell them eventually, I just don't find any use in prolonging it."

"Tell us what?" Winter asked hesitantly. Cinder couldn't say one word in assistance – she didn't want to know. There were only a handful of things she imagined that could make Iko cry, and none of them any news Cinder wanted to hear.

Advisor Torin took in a breath, but the impassive look on his face never wavered. "I'm sorry to have to inform you of this, however, there is no point in keeping it from you."

A weight deep in Cinder's chest – in the same place it felt hollow in her dream – sunk lower and lower until the next words out of his mouth sent her to the ground in grief.

"Your parents will not be returning from their journey overseas."

And with just those words, a small crack split in Cinder's heart, as if it were made of something hard and solid.

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**Guest: Thanks for the review! As to your question, yes and no. Frozen and this story are both based off The Snow Queen and as you will see there will be some similarities, however, the events in the story are and will be very different. I already have a full outline of this story and know where it is headed, far from the Disney musical tale.**

**Thanks to my other reviewer Cheesehead101! I'm ecstatic you liked it!**

**To the rest of you, thanks for reading as always! And as always, please review!**


	5. Four: The Lonely Snowman

"Your Highness?"

Another knock echoed from the hollow wood of her bedroom door. Cinder was surprised she could hear the continuous knocking of a somber Iko over her weeping sobs deep into her feather pillow. She lifted her head just above the cushioned surface ― not to respond to the worrisome calls pleading with her, but to take a shaky breath her tear-drowned lungs appreciated.

Advisor Torin's acid words left no room for interpretation. King Garan Luna and Queen Adri Lihn of Iceland had died on their journey home, leaving the greatest country left in the world without ruler. Cinder could practically picture the pedestals Iceland's greatness stood upon tumbling into dust along with the rest of the kingdom.

Despite her and Winter's obvious distress, Advisor Torin continued with his speech like the ever-efficient advisor he was. Their carriage was found upturned in the eastern mountains, buried beneath a storm of white and red snow. Cinder ran off to lock herself into seclusion before he could continue with any more details.

The isolation let her scream into the covers of her bed without feeling guilty about burdening the others in the castle. It wasn't a strong feeling; mostly her mind could only focus on the painful thoughts of all the little things she'd lost.

Her father would never again give her a warm kiss on her forehead before she retired every night. As a family, they would never take another trip up to the northern shore enjoying the few weeks of summer by collecting colored shells on the beach. She would never hear another of her mother's enchanting stories of magic and legend that kept her imagination open even as she grew older.

She recalled her mother's favorite story to tell Winter, one she used to ease Cinder to sleep only years before.

_Once upon a time, _her mother began with her sweet voice, _there lived a lonely snowman._

_The snowman used to be quite happy, for the world around him was covered in snow. He could have snowball fights and build igloos and make as many snow angels as his heart desired. _

_However, the snowman soon realized there was no one else to share his fun. He had no one else to throw snowballs back at him, no one else to tell him secrets under the igloo's roof, and no one to make friends with his many angels._

_Across the mysterious forest of changing seasons, he often heard voices of laughter and fun. He found himself compelled to travel to the forest's edge, but could go no further. The heat would make him tired and ill, forcing him to run back into the snow as quickly as he could._

_Saddened by his lack of company, he traveled the land of winter in search for friends. He reached the end of the world where the land turned into a lake as clear as glass without luck. Losing all hope of ever finding a companion, he stumbled onto the slipper ground, one step taking him far out into the lake's center._

_In the glistening mirror lake, he caught his reflection of snow and cold. The sad state he saw himself in brought tears to his eyes. Tears as frozen as the flakes that fell from the sky overhead._

"_Why are you crying?" The snowflakes around the snowman whispered._

_"I'm all alone," he sniffled. "There's no one in this winter to be my friend. If I could travel to the world of summer, I'm sure someone would be my friend."_

_"Why can't you travel to the world of summer?" A thousand tiny voices asked._

_"Because I'll melt into a puddle."_

_His tears fell harder around his snow-packed legs until he felt he could never travel back to land again. But as the tiny voices grew silent and the snowman's loneliness filled his heart, the lake began to glow._

_The snow seized to fall replaced by a warmth hanging in the air. As the heat spread, the lonely snowman looked up from his crying to find his reflection had changed. No longer was he covered in snow with coal eyes and a carrot nose. His feet had elongated with five toes on each while his stick hands thickened with flesh and nails._

_He smiled into his reflection, real teeth shining behind his real lips. With glee, he shouted and jumped finding himself a real boy. He marched to the forest of changing seasons and crossed without melting. On the other side, he found a village of children his age laughing and playing. The lonely snowman – now the friendly boy – spent the rest of his days in the village where he was never alone._

_And he lived happily ever after? _Winter always asked.

_Of course,_ their mother said with a snuggling hug for each daughter. _You see, the snowman found The Mirror of Reason which can melt any cold in the heart or mind . . . _

Cinder's head jolted off her pillow at her mother's words. The weight deep in her chest quivered as well, as if sensing the discovery Cinder had made. Through her grief, the freezing of her body continuously spread until her tears became grateful rivers of warmth.

With the loss of her parents still nipping in the back of her mind, Cinder composed herself enough that only her puffy eyes could reveal how she spent her evening. Once she confirmed Iko was no longer loitering outside her door, she snuck out into the hall as quietly as she could. Her soundless footsteps carried her to the massive library in the castle's west wing just a few doors down from her parents' bedroom.

Every time she heard one of the weeping servants, she ducked out of view and waited for them to pass. Few traveled as far as the west wing in light of the news, but being so close to where her parents rested only weeks before made her jumps even more heart-stopping.

It had been over a month since Cinder had ventured to the world of wall-to-wall books and documents of all sorts. Half the library was redesigned as a study with globes and maps as old as the world itself. The rest was leather-bound records of stories that helped Cinder escape the harsher bits of reality.

Without a real organizational system, it was a wonder how Cinder knew where the one book she searched for was hidden. She recalled the silver spine lacking a title or name and pictured its location a floor above the fireplace. No wear shown on its flawless cover, though the discolored pages told its real age.

Swinging out one of the many ladders attached to the bookshelves, she swept herself over the brimming fire and ascended to the second floor shelving. Even standing just feet above the live heat, Cinder felt nothing but the cold in her chest and leather binding beneath her fingers.

Upon finding the silver book, she pried it from the compressed space between its neighbors. She barely was able to slide back down to sturdy ground as she flipped page after page. Her mind processed the many lines of scrolled ink as it flew by, searching for one page in particular.

She braced it open once a line fit in sync with her memory. Two pages of faint ink with sketches of snowflakes and a small snowman where space allowed. Turning a few pages before the story she knew by heart, she found the lore in which the story was created and perhaps the only answers to the mystery surrounding her.

_The Mirror of Reason is a legendary lake that is said to be found in a mountainous region at 'the end of the earth'. Though there is no known place where this phrase may be referring to, speculators have hunted the Arctic and Antarctic regions in search for the magical lake._

_While many believe the lake to grant wishes, the legend states merely that it can melt any frost in the heart or mind. Similar legends from the same era indicate a type of curse brought on by magic users that could freeze someone's heart and turn them completely to ice. They referred to it as 'The Touch of Frost'._

Bewildered and frightened by the information she was learning, Cinder dropped to the floor where she could scan through the pages faster. The phrase had to be somewhere within the stained pages of nothing but winter themed myths – and it was. Near the end, there was an entire section titled _The Touch of Frost_ which Cinder laid open on the carpeted floor.

_The Touch of Frost is a curse that appeared in the age of the Vikings first mentioned in _The Tale of Winter's Witch_ a ghost story taking place in Europe's mountainous region. In the story, a witch cursed a beautiful maiden who hiked the mountain the witch called her home. She froze over the girl's heart and sent her tumbling off the mountain._

_Afterward, the girl thought herself to be fine but slowly her body grew colder and colder. Unbeknownst to her, her heart was turning completely to ice. Eventually, her hair grew white and she could no longer move she was weakened so much by her shivers. After snowflakes appeared in her irises, she turned completely to ice where not even the following summer's heat could thaw her._

Cinder sat back and stared down at the open book feeling raw and hopeless. She thought of the witch's story and the image of the Snow Queen in her bedroom appeared instead. The night before wasn't a dream. The Snow Queen had cursed her with the Touch of Frost.

_Consider this my coronation gift to you, little princess._

The queen's words felt like poison just bringing them to mind. She _knew_ about her parents' death – coming all the way down from the moon just to curse Cinder would be pointless unless she took the throne. The Snow Queen wanted her dead in one of her attempts to end their kingdom permanently. And this time, she was succeeding.

But Cinder refused to hand her kingdom over, she refused to roll over and die on the queen's whim. It may have been legend, but she believed in her mother enough to at least hope The Mirror of Reason was real.

She would not lose everything to Queen Levana Luna.

Scrambling to the other side of the room, Cinder hunted down a map and began searching for the end of the world.

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**Thank you as always, reviewers and readers! I was very happy you had sympathy for Cinder and Winter's parents, but don't fret. There are many flashbacks that include them.**

**Silverleaf15: Thank you for the compliment! On to your question, Iceland's position on the Earth allowed it to keep having four seasons. This, in turn, helped them maintain steady farming and trade which other countries lost. There are a few more countries not under Levana's rule, but they don't thrive in the same way Iceland does. We will see some of those countries in a few chapters as well as a clearer explanation.**

**Cheesehead101 and may96, thank you for your reviews!**

**As for the rest, please review!**


	6. Five: Alpha

Ze'ev popped a vein in his forehead, the punching of buttons on a passcode lock only adding to his impatience. Kneeling before the small, rectangular box attached at the doorway's hip, the raggedy-haired girl fumbled typing a series of numbers so long Ze'ev doubted she knew what she was doing. Her fingers buzzed across the digits too fast for even his acute eyesight to keep sense of what was what.

"Are you finished yet?" His voice was steady and composed, while his insides huffed in annoyance at the girl's incompetence. Less than twenty-four hours before, the very same ship they were loading into – _his_ ship – had docked from a trip to the very same place they were headed to. And yet, this trip seemed to be ages longer because of the unexpected guest he was forced to take with him.

She ignored him for four full seconds, Ze'ev's irritation only increasing as time passed. He noticed her eyes followed the numbers without difficulty, moving from one to the next before her fingers found the correct number. After what must have been over a hundred dials, a green light blazed and the doors to the launch bay slid apart.

Standing erect, she pushed up her glasses, though they hadn't fallen an inch. "The lock has exactly one hundred digits known only by the queen, the lady Mira, and me."

"That isn't what I asked," Ze'ev said, brushing by the small girl and into the launch bay. His unit of soldiers followed behind without granting the girl as much as a passing glance. All but one, who snickered as he tripped her trying to scurry back up to the head of the group. She fell onto her face with her mess of hair coming loose from the thick braid she tied it in. Judging by the uneven clumps, she must have to tie it herself.

Ze'ev took a deep breath over the sniggering of his comrades. "Miss Moon?"

The clumsy girl parted the curtain of hair framing her face to reveal a red nose and blotch on her forehead. "I prefer Cress," she mumbled in response.

"Miss Cress, then." He allowed only because calling her Crescent Moon all the time was a mouthful. "Please program the navigation coordinates and prepare for launch."

"By myself?" she inquired meekly.

"You are known as the best hacker, programmer, and, of course, tracker in the entire kingdom." He turned and raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you're incapable of acting on your own accord?"

She stood and tried taming her hair with red cheeks. "I'm not _incapable_ . . . I'm just not allowed."

With his soldiers standing at attention, watching with amusement, he took two steps toward the girl. He had to lean down to gaze into her eyes with met his without fear, only curiosity.

"Earth is one hundred and ninety six point nine million square miles, most of which is nothing but ice. For someone with your . . . _vitals_, Earth is death trap without assistance."

Clarification wasn't necessary; if she tried to escape as so many always believed she would – as she _used to_ believe she would – there was no hope for her survival.

"I'll program the coordinates," she supposed before heading over to the largest silver ship on the pad. Ze'ev only felt a slight tinge of impress when she cracked the entrance code in under a minute.

He turned to address his unit of some of the best soldiers in the queen's guard. His respect for them heavily outweighed that of a warm-blooded, naïve child, however, the queen's orders and the mission came above all else.

"First Lieutenant." All backs stiffened realizing their General meant nothing but business. The First Lieutenant in question – the lowest ranked member of their squadron – gulped in what Ze'ev assumed was anger. Whenever he called his younger brother out in front of other soldiers, hatred was usually what the lower-ranking soldier felt.

"Is this a game to you, Ran?" he inquired with cool indifference. "Is this just another practice run where you can screw up however you want and then laugh it off with your buddies?"

He grit his teeth. "No sir," he spat.

"That girl in there is the only one who can find Iceland's princess. So I don't care if she's different than us, I don't care that she's an ignorant kid with hair that trails on the floor, I wouldn't even care if she had a third eye on her forehead; she is vital to the mission and therefore we will respect her."

He stepped back to address the rest of his men. "That goes for all of you. Miss Cress is a valuable asset to the queen and she has asked us to bring her along so that will may fulfill her wishes without hiccup. If any of you disrespect her, you will answer directly to me. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" they all repeated before filing into a line to enter the _Alpha_. Ze'ev received the ship as a gift of service when he was awarded his ranking of Captain at age sixteen – the youngest in history. Three years later he was named the youngest General and retained his status as one of the queen's most loyal soldiers.

He stalked onto the ship, dark memories of his most recent travel invading his personal thoughts. The sound of wheels driving over a dirt road, horses running away in fear, blood splattering the pure snow–

With force, he pushed the thoughts far out of his mind. Being a good soldier meant staying composed above all else, and he was losing his composure. He didn't understand why it bothered him that much; he succeeded in his mission – it was just like any other.

Telling himself that over and over, he found his seat in the pilot's chair with the girl typing on the controls in the co-pilot's seat. Her attention drifted from the small tablet in her lap to the large screen with a map grid drawn out in holographic lines. She must have re-braided her hair; it fell over her back in another messy tail.

"We'll be landing in the mountains near the capital city," she reported without wavering her attention. "It's the only safe place while still remaining close by."

"Don't they have a launch pad we can use?" a soldier buckling himself in asked skeptically.

"Iceland has next to no technology and has no need for a launch pad."

"No technology?" Ran scoffed. "How is that possible?"

With a beep on confirmation, the exact coordinates were locked into the _Alpha's_ mainframe. "It was one of the reasons Levana couldn't brainwash them with her projection magic as she did the other countries in her second strike." She coughed and corrected herself seeing Ze'ev's glare. "_Queen _Levana."

"Either way," Ze'ev intervened. "We want to be unseen, so the mountains are the best place to stake out until we can hunt the young princess down."

Flipping a switch on the long control panel, he started up the massive ship as the launching bay doors slowly drew open. At his side, the girl quickly buckled herself tight into her seat as if she would be thrown through the window at the slightest jerk. He hadn't realized – though it was so obvious – she had never been on a ship before.

"Hunt?" she mumbled under her breath. "You sound like a wolf."

* * *

**Next chapter will either be a continuation of Cinder's adventure or a first peek at Kai. If any of you have an opinion on which you would like feel free to review, I would appreciate the help!**

**Another grand thank you to all who are reading and reviewing!**


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